Loose front hub dust caps
Hi,
I'm having a problem with what appears to be the dust covers on the front hub of cyclocross bike. I ride it on the roads a lot, as well as gravel tracks etc. Riding to work on Thursday, I noticed that the dust caps (see pic from Sheldon Brown) keep coming loose. I went in via the bike shop and they tapped it back in with a rubber mallet for me, but by the time I was back home, the dust covers are loose again.
The ride is about 20 miles each way, and the road quality is quite poor. I believe it's the vibration caused by the rough but flat road sections that is causing this to come loose. There doesn't appear to be anything to hold them in place at all. The hub is unbranded. The rear 105 hub seems to be fine.
Anyone got any ideas? Are all hubs put together this way, or do I need to consider getting a new wheel or having the rim relaced to a better hub?
Cheers,
Steve
I'm having a problem with what appears to be the dust covers on the front hub of cyclocross bike. I ride it on the roads a lot, as well as gravel tracks etc. Riding to work on Thursday, I noticed that the dust caps (see pic from Sheldon Brown) keep coming loose. I went in via the bike shop and they tapped it back in with a rubber mallet for me, but by the time I was back home, the dust covers are loose again.
The ride is about 20 miles each way, and the road quality is quite poor. I believe it's the vibration caused by the rough but flat road sections that is causing this to come loose. There doesn't appear to be anything to hold them in place at all. The hub is unbranded. The rear 105 hub seems to be fine.
Anyone got any ideas? Are all hubs put together this way, or do I need to consider getting a new wheel or having the rim relaced to a better hub?
Cheers,
Steve
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Comments
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Hi, you could either take the offending dust caps out and very slightly squash them so they are slightly oval in shape, this should keep them in place once tapped back in.
Or, remove and clean and put a very small amount of thread lock on them and tap back in.
Remember they will need to be removed for bearing re-greasing occasionally.He is not the messiah, he is a very naughty boy !!0 -
Thanks for the reply.
Neither of these solutions seem that great right now. I'm not sure how I could squash them, they seem fairly thick pieces of metal and I don't have a vice.
A little thread lock may work though, but then again, as you say it needs to come off to be able to re-grease the bearings, and if it actually holds I can't see how I can get it off again without damage.
As it was built up as a cyclocross bike, I guess the shop put a cheap hub on there that's light on the basis it's probably going to be worked on/replaced regularly during the season anyway.
Just been looking at the current Shimano 105 hub details on their website - it looks like that actually has the dust cap as part of the lock nut unit with screw thread and lock nut to hold it in place. That looks much more sensible to me!
Cheers,
Steve0
